When the Socceroos touched down in Australia recently they were on the eve of a 10-day rollercoaster ride.

Seemingly, they were simply back to face a couple of teams, farewell some battle-scarred team-mates, do a round of interviews and thank the hordes who partied in the wee morning hours while watching Germany 2006.

With a showdown against South American powerhouse Paraguay and an Asian Cup qualifier against Bahrain beckoning, there was plenty on the plate.

But a media storm started brewing early on, as media zeroed in on Mark Schwarzer’s comments that Guus Hiddink and Zeljko Kalac didn’t quite handle things the way the Boro ’keeper felt they should have. However it wasn’t until the team was scheduled to report to camp that the proverbial poo hit the fan…

In the absence of World Cup captain Mark Viduka, it was Craig Moore who was to step into the breach. The Newcastle defender has 36 caps to his name and had already captained the team pre-Hiddink. But when he failed to catch his Brisbane-bound flight from Sydney all hell broke loose as the media scratched deep to find out he’d been out late celebrating with Kalac and Tony Popovic, sending the FFA into damage control.

Watching it all was Lucas Neill, who had enjoyed a relatively low-key arrival back home. Most of his time had been spent handling an ever-growing harem of women and shooting ads for his sponsors. But the following day, it was Neill who would emerge to take the coveted mantle of the Socceroo captaincy.



Boldly he declared, “I want to win the Asian Cup and I want to help Australia qualify for the next World Cup – as the captain, if possible.”

If we needed a leader with confidence to fill in, we’d chosen well. Clearly it was something Neill enjoyed and an appointment that many observers felt should have come sooner.

Whether it’s now or post-Asian Cup/post-Viduka, Neill has all the right attributes to not only lead the side but take football in Australia to the “lofty heights” that everyone keeps speaking about. He performs on the field, has the looks and even has the respect of the typical Aussie boof who doesn’t like football. If anyone is to be catapulted into being a household name, Neill is the obvious choice. And importantly, the enormous task of helping maintain the momentum of the sport in Australia isn’t something that’s lost on him either.

“I’m sorry, I just need to calm down a bit… it’s a bit like a circus,” Neill says breathlessly as he jumps in our car. After holding a press conference with Socceroo coach Graham Arnold, Neill joined FourFourTwo en route to making a new ad for Nike+iPod in Sydney’s Centennial Park.

This rock star treatment is new for all of the Socceroos, who have returned home as sporting heroes. To a lesser extent, the treatment had already started following their exploits against Uruguay but this time they were being mobbed like never before. It was at appearances in Brisbane and Sydney just days before that the extent of their new fame really hit home.